Pyxis Ranger Coalition
Ranger.png|First iteration of the Ranger Logo Ranger Emblem 2.0.png|Second iteration of the Ranger Logo 99 Ever Changing Lilies Sticker.png|Ship: The Almighty Star Chaser, Unit: Ever Changing Lilies 99 Black Pack Patch.png|Ship: Starfiend, Unit: Black Pack 99 Ace Pebbles Patch.png|Ship: Nova Bane, Unit: Ace Pepples 99 Bloody Snowflakes Sticker.png|Ship: Shadowfury, Unit: Bloody Snowflakes 99 Flirty Foxes Sticker.png|Ship: Bimi Sequoia, Unit: Flirty Foxes 99 Prancing Puppies Patch.png|Ship: Eternal Fireworks, Unit: Prancing Puppies 99 Pumpkin Knights Patch.png|Ship: Heartseeker, Unit: Pumpkin Knights 99 Scout Snipers Patch.png|Ship: Vicious Wanderer, Unit: Scout Snipers 99 Toxin Troopers Patch.png|Ship: Moonlight Fury, Unit: Toxin Troopers 99 Void Wolves Sticker.png|Ship: Ivory Specter, Unit: Void Wolves The Pyxis Ranger Coalition is a paramilitary special service of House Pyxis. The organisation, long since evolved from its founding principles, is now deeply involved in multidisciplinary civilian and military operations. Having undergone significant restructuring and weaponization during the Great Synthetic War. Examples of the Rangers jurisdictional operations include: search and rescue, hostage retrieval, tubular assault, fire and disaster response, domestic civil defence and clandestine intelligence operations within and around the freefrom borders of the Lodestone. Operating in small, elite teams out of Ranger commanded space vessels, or, as small group task forces attached to a larger vessels. Typically, the Rangers are often seen carrying customised void rifles for use in close quarter ship action and donning deep navy CFU armour, customised to allow for extended operations in vacuum. The Three Principles of the Rangers When the Rangers were first conceived as a coalition they refined their targets and aspirations by focussing their efforts towards one of three long term goals. Whilst the organisation has significantly evolved over the course of it’s nearly 80 year history, the three principle concepts of the Rangers remain as true as ever. Safety The Rangers primary role is to provide safe passage to the citizens of Pyxis space. Maintaining and providing search, rescue and emergency services as well as making effort towards the preservation of clear drill spike lanes and sensor networks of Pyxis space. Sustainability As an organization, the Rangers are mindful of the limited resources of House Pyxis and strive to be sustainable in their own right. They display continued ingenuity in superbly managing complex situations with limited supplies and often outdated technology. Security Critically, the Rangers play a role in the security of our borders, while also providing scouting parties to the Empire in our efforts to nullify the Synth Threat, as an ongoing commitment. Security elements within the Rangers are also asked to take part in counter-piracy and synth intelligence gathering roles. The Leadership, Management and Hierarchy The Errant The leadership of the Ranger Coalition is mostly defined by the Coalition’s Small Council, headed by Errant of the Coalition. The Errant, a title reserved for that high leadership role, symbolises the both adventurous and renegade nature of the Rangers envoy. The first in the line of Errants, was Warden Pyxis Kymay Timucin, having utilised it to great effect to sculpt and mold the Rangers into the focussed and determined organisation they are known for today. Whilst the position for Errant is not limited to a Warden, the omnipresence offered by their pronged stay in Lodestone space has long made them ideal for management of the Rangers assets and finances. The current Errant has yet to be opposed for the position, having so far lead the Rangers from strength to strength through great times of adversity. The current Errant is Warden Pyxis Damson Rola. The Small Council The Errant is answerable to and receives input from the small council, a loosey defined group of opinionated Ranger Nobility and starship captains. The Rangers and Captains embody a diverse body of opinions, with many internal debates between alternative views on day to day subject matter being commonplace. The Errant uses this council to guide larger scale projects, efforts and objectives for the Coalition. He also uses this forum as a means to drive competition betwixt the Ranger groups, inspiring them to attain and achieve better in their day to day tasks with integrity, honour and competency as a form of peacetime motivation. The small council is technically open to any Ranger, though only a handful often have even the faintest desire to attend the meetings. Many captains will bring Marshalls with them into the small council meetings to impart upon them knowledge of the courtly business and proceedings to better equip them for captaining their own ship one day. But otherwise, the attendance is typically static in number, aside from larger more profound votes such as the dubiously dubbed ‘Warmonger Vote’ of 3179, in which many were polled for their opinion. Mission Deployment and Task Management Roles within the council are extraordinarily dynamic, tasks, missions and maintenance requests are often volunteered for within the small council with no direct orders needing to be given. The spread of specialties is such that nearly all tasks are picked up by persons dedicated to perfection in that area, or spread amongst competing parties. As an example there is currently an ongoing race between two groups of Rangers as to how many deep space anti-starship mines they can deactivate from around Gats within the next imperial calendar month, the stakes are high between the two engineering teams and there are many takers. Jobs that aren’t taken up immediately volunteered for are posted for uptake on the Ranger POD (Pyxis Operations Dropbox), an intersystem posting board upkept by the Errant. It lists objectives, expectations, rewards and expected bragging rights for missions to incentivise uptake and completion of otherwise less desirable postings. Outside of interstellar war, where lines of authority become blurred and expectations from other Houses are high, at no point is a Ranger contingent coerced or pressured into a mission. Rank Rank exists within the Ranger Coalition, moreso as a recognition of role than an enforcement of hierarchy. The Coalition is instead more comparable to an extended family than a hierarchy of rank. True rank only applies in combat situations to give and distribute orders based on both organisational seniority and experience. It is not uncommon for orders to be liberal, with considerable weight given to each Ranger’s opinion, however in the flow of action, most will defer to follow orders as wrote, as they often came well considered in the first place. There are six distinct roles in the Ranger coalition: Captain The Captain is in overall command of the Ranger team and vessel. Often they are a noble who funds the team personally and is responsible for their crew, some of which are pledged serfs to that noble family. Alternatively they may be a senior Ranger, a freeman or a pledged knight, that may act under the authority and finances of a Noble Pyxian third party. Captains often represent their vessel in the small council. Marshall A marshall is a senior ranger, often promoted from the First Rangership contingent, whom is responsible for a department within the Ranger detachment, these typically include ship board operations posts and military specialties. They oversee small teams cross trained in essential spacefaring or civilian skills, as well as combatant Rangers. Examples include Weapons Marshall, Covert Operations Marshall, Navigation Marshall, Helms Marshall and so on. They typically manage teams within these roles and are responsible for their immediate wellbeing. Specialist A specialist is a cross trained ranger that goes above and beyond a working level of expertise in a given subject or skill, examples include medical staff and doctors as well as full time engineers and pilots. Many of these specialists will have enrolled onto the ranger program after they completed training in their base specialty, therefore many will place quickly into this rank, rather than earn it as the other ranks are normally distributed. As a result specialists can hold a variable role in the hierarchy and are often turned to for specialist advice by all parties but do not typically hold command authority over a specific team or group. First Ranger A First Ranger is a Ranger whom has shown considerable skill or special technical interest in combat, often with a particular foci, such as marksmanship, suit/mech piloting and infantry tactics. Some first rangers will lead a small fireteam of Rangers, especially if the squad has green members fresh from training, sharing their knowledge and experience with the team and training future first ranger candidates. Ranger Your typical Ranger, well trained, disciplined and effective. Each Ranger went through an arduous process to be accepted as a Ranger, and those trials mold them into an effective and respected fighting force. Rangers are proud but not obnoxious, nor fanatical, they respect all members of Pyxis equally, taking pride in protecting the core of the House, both it’s people and beliefs. Ash Ranger These Rangers are recruited for covert intelligence operations, working outside of conventional means and outside of the normal Ranger ranks. Working in teams of two, they keep minimal contact with each other receiving orders via encoded communications to maintain complete deniability. Secrecy is their shield and weapon. With no formal training, each Ash Ranger is hand selected for their unique skill sets for a specific task to be completed. Each team self designates a title based of two words and use each word to nominate the different people of the team in reports The Appearance of the Rangers Typically Rangers do not have a set casual dress code. The crew are free to wear their choice of attire whilst they are off duty. Typically, the only stipulation is that whilst on board their home vessel and that all crew wear ‘secure clothing’ rated apparel at the very least. This provides passable protection to the wearer from unexpected trauma and injury in the case of turbulence, system failure or ambush. It does not however prevent injury or mortality associated with vacuum exposure. Equipping the entire crew of Vac capable emergency fleet clothing is an ongoing effort, but is fraught with material and financial hurdles. Whilst on duty, in Rangers are expected to wear black/black-navy service uniforms, typically with gold highlights, though this varies through the spectrum of Units for ease of distinguishing alternating Ranger teams/units. These also adhere to the minimum safety standards as their off duty apparel, with regards to protective linings and resistant materials. Hierarchy Insignia are prominently displayed on the right shoulder, and back of neck. Often the nominal ranks are assigned as a mark of both skill and respect and features proudly in colours matching that of the underlying service uniform. Dress uniform, considerably more tailored than that of the service uniform, is a very proud feature of the Rangers attire. It represents the trials, hardships and accomplishments of the individual and their belonging to that family. It is always well kept, and often features the more typical, if somewhat refined eccentricities of Pyxis fashion. Mostly seen at formal events such as dress meals in the galley, the Moot, Weddings and perhaps more somberly, funerals. In expectant combat situations the rangers don their tailored Combat Field Uniforms. This multilayer, integrated engagement apparel is top of the line TL4 tech, with additional modifications to support vacuum operations. Favouring the deep blacks and blues of space for camouflage, It is typically adorned with ornamentation, minor works of graffiti and customised parts tailored to the users. As for personal and facial appearance, Rangers don’t adhere to a set code for haircut or color, tattoos, jewelry or other body modifications, except that of their uniform. In every other instance all rangers are free to look like however he/she/it pleases. It remains paramount to the Pyxis culture at large to retain elements of self expression and individuality, and the Rangers are no exception. Notable Starships HPS - 430 Star Chaser (Carrier) HPS - 730 Phoenix (Cruiser) HPS - 117 Orion (Frigate) HPS - 703 Hellhammer (Frigate) HPS - 216 Starfiend (Corvette) HPS - 1917 Spacequake (Corvette) Notable Rangers Void-Walker Pyxis Kymay Rayya in rank of Captain Ranger Pyxis Tra Kotep in rank of First Ranger Ranger Desmaru Ioji in rank of Ranger Voidtouched Pyxis Romani Raetac in rank of Ash Ranger Voidtalker Pyxis Romani Elena in rank of Ash Ranger Grillseeker Pyxis Rylen Lara in rank of Ash Ranger Category:House Pyxis Category:Pyxis Ranger Coalition